Description

During the past twenty-five years, North American forestry has received increasingly vigorous scrutiny. Critics including the environmentalists, environmental scientists, representatives of public interest groups, and many individual citizens have expressed concerns about forestry's basic assumptions and methods, as well as its practical outcomes. Criticism has centered on such issues as the exploitation of forests for timber production, the reduction and fragmentation of old-growth habitats, the destruction of biodiversity, the degradation of grasslands through grazing practices, lack of government attention to recreation facilities, silvicultural methods like clearcutting and the use of herbicides and pesticides, the exportation of industrial forestry techniques to other parts of the world, and the use of public monies to provide services for private resouce companies, as in the creation of logging roads.

This rising tide of public scrutiny has led many foresters to suspect that their "contract" with society to manage forests using their best professional judgment had been undermined. Some of these professionals, as well as some of their critics, have begun to reexamine their old beliefs and to look for new ways of practicing forestry. Part of this reflective process has entailed new directions in environmental ethics and environmental philosophy.

This reader brings together some of the new thinking in this area. Here students of the applied environmental and natural resource sciences, as well as the interested general reader, will discover a rich sampling of writings in environmental ethics and philosophy as they apply to forestry. Readings focus on basic ethical systems in forestry and forest management, philosophical issues in forestry ethics, codes of ethics in forestry and related natural resource sciences such as fisheries science and wildlife biology, Aldo Leopold's land ethic in forestry, ethical advocacy and whistleblowing in government resource agencies, the ethics of new forestry, ecoforestry, and public debate in forestry, as well as ethical issues in global forestry such as the responsibilities of forest corporations, environmentalists, and individual wood consumers.

This volume contains materials from the founders of forestry ethics, such as Bernhard Fernow, Giford Pinchot, John Muir, and Aldo Leopold; from such organizations as the Society of American Foresters, the Wildlife Society, the American Fisheries Society, Forest Service Employees for Environmental Ethics, and the Ecoforesters group, in addition to writings by a variety of well-known environmental philosophers and foresters, including Holmes Rolston, Robin Attfield, Lawrence Johnson, Michael McDonald, Paul Wood, James E. Coufal, Raymond Craig, Kristin Shrader-Frechette, Jeff DeBonis, Jim L. Bowyer, Alasdair Gunn, Goug Gaigle, Alan G. McQuillan, Stephanie Kaza, Alan Dregson, Duncan Taylor, and Kathleen Dean Moore.

Table of Contents

Preface
Acknowledgments
General Introduction

Part I: Ethical Systems in Forestry
THE ECONOMIC RESOURCE MODEL OF FORESTS AND FORESTRY
1. Forest and Forestry Defined  Bernhard Fernow
2. Principles of Conservation  Gifford Pinchot
3. The Use of the National Forests  Gifford Pinchot
JOHN MUIR ON THE PRESERVATION OF THE WILD FORESTS OF THE WEST
4. The American Forests  John Muir
ALDO LEOPOLD'S LAND ETHIC IN FORESTRY
5. The Land Ethic  Aldo Leopold

Part III: Contemporary Forestry Ethics
BASIC PRINCIPLES IN FORESTRY ETHICS
11. First Principles for Professional Foresters  Michael McDonald
12. "The Greatest Good for the Greatest Number": Is This a Good Land-Use Ethic  Paul M. Wood
13. Environmental Ethics: Cogitations and Ruminations of a Forester  James E. Coufal
14. The Ecoforestry Declaration of Interdependence
CODES OF ETHICS IN FORESTRY, FISHERIES, AND WILDLIFE BIOLOGY
15. Code of Ethics for Members of the Society of American Foresters
16. Code of Ethics and Standards for Professional Conduct for Wildlife Biologists, The Wildlife Society
17. Code of Practices, American Fisheries Society
18. Code of Ethics, Oregon Chapter, American Fisheries Society
19. A Code of Ethics for Government Service
20. The Ecoforester's Way
ADOPTING A LAND ETHIC IN THE SOCIETY OF AMERICAN FORESTERS
21. The Land Ethic Question  James E. Coufal
22. Land Ethic Canon Recommended by Committee  Norwin E. Linnartz, Raymond S. Craig, and M. B. Dickerman
23. A Forest Ethic and Multivalue Forest Management: The Integrity of Forests and of Foresters Are Bound Together  Holmes Rolston III and James Coufal
24. Further Development for a Land Ethic Canon  Raymond S. Craig
25. Land Ethic Canon Proposal: A Report from the Task Force  Raymond S. Craig
ADVOCATING NEW ENVIRONMENTAL ETHICS IN PUBLIC NATURAL RESOURCE AGENCIES
26. Ethics and Environmental Advocacy  Kristin Shrader-Frechette
27. Inner Voice
28. AFSEEE Vision: Strategy for Forest Service Reform
29. Speaking Out: A Letter to the Chief of the U.S. Forest Service  Jeff DeBonis
30. Chief Robertson Responds  F. Dale Robertson
31. On Speaking Out: Fighting for Resource Ethics in the BLM
32. Whistleblower Spills Beans on North Kaibab
33. A Combat Biologist Calls It Quits: An Interview with Al Espinosa
34. Tongass Employees Speak Out
35. Enough Is Enough! A Tongass Timber Beast Puts His Foot Down  Cheri Brooks
ETHICAL ISSUES IN GLOBAL FORESTRY
36. Responsible Environmentalism: The Ethical Features of Forest Harvest and Wood Use on a Global Scale  James L. Bowyer
37. Environmental Ethics and Tropical Rain Forests: Should Greens Have Standing?  Alastair S. Gunn
38. Globalization of the Timber Trade  Doug Diagle
NEW FORESTRY, NEW FOREST PHILOSOPHIES
39. Cabbages and Kings: The Ethics and Aesthetics of New Forestry  Alan G. McQuillan
40. Ethical Tensions in the Northern Forest  Stephanie Kaza
41. An Overview of Ecoforestry: Introduction  Alan Drengson and Duncan Taylor
EPILOGUE
Traveling the Logging Road, Coast Range  Kathleen Dean Moore
Selected Bibliography
Index

About the Author(s)

Peter List is Professor of Philosophy at Oregon State University, where he teaches courses on environmental ethics, ethical issues in the natural resource sciences, and sustainable forestry. He is the author of articles on Aldo Leopold's land ethic, and co-author of several articles on public attitudes about federal forests and forest management, published in the Journal of Forestry and Society and Natural Resources.